Moses, in the Book of Deuteronomy, tells us to “return to the Lord your God with
all your heart and all your soul” (Dt 30:10). Moses says that this is not difficult, like
crossing a sea, “No, it is something very near to you, already in your mouths and in your
hearts, you have only to carry it out” (Dt 30:14). We can turn to God by turning our
mouths and our hearts to God.
Jesus says “love God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your
strength, and with all your mind.” By turning to God with our mouths and our hearts we
grow in love. A person grows stronger as he or she exercises the strength which he or
she already has. A person stays alert as they continue to use their minds to think. The
heart is a muscle and as we exercise it the heart grows stronger.
In a similar way, we grow in love for God as we use our minds to see how good
God has been to us. We grow in love for God by using our mouths to tell God that we
love Him. We grow in love for God as we turn our hearts to God.
We love God by seeing how good God is to us, especially in giving us Jesus. The
Letter to the Colossians enables us to appreciate who Jesus is and how He relates to
us.
Colossians declares that Christ is the “image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15). St.
Thomas Aquinas explains that Jesus is called the “Son” because He comes forth from
the Father, as a child from parents with the likeness of the Father, as a child has the
likeness of parents. Jesus resembles the Father.
Human children receive human nature from their parents but Jesus has the exact
same nature as the Father. Thomas states: “The nature of God is His existence and His
act of understanding.” It is the “nature” of God to exist and to know! (Thomas Aquinas,
Commentary on the Letter of Paul to the Colossians, 34)
Thomas offers us a way to imagine how the Son comes forth from the Father by
using an example, which he admits only “faintly” throws light on the Son’s coming forth
from the Father:
We have a mental word when we actually conceive [in the mind] the form of the
thing of which we have knowledge; and then we signify this mental word by an
external word. And this mental word we have conceived is a certain likeness, in

our mind, of the thing, and it is like it in species. And so the Word of God is called
the image of God (Commentary on Colossians, 31).
            When we have a word or an idea in our mind, we might say that we conceive
that word or idea. In fact, we use the word “conception” for both the conception of a
child and the conception of an idea in our minds. When we speak our word or idea, the
word or idea comes forth from us but it is still with us. Our words and ideas are in us but
reveal us.
Thomas suggests that this explanation gives us an initial way to imagine the
eternal generation of the Word of the Father, who remains one with the Father. The
Word of the Father comes forth from the Father yet is still one with the Father. He
repeats that this is only a “faint” way to understand the eternal generation of the Word.
            When Colossians declares that Jesus is the “image of the invisible God,” we
might get the impression that the Father is invisible and the Son pertains to a visible
expression of God, which is distinct from God Himself, as when Jesus took a human
nature in the Incarnation.
However, Thomas explains: “The Son is not only the image of the invisible God,
but He Himself is invisible like the Father: He is the image of the invisible God”
(Commentary on Colossians, 32).
            When Colossians declares that Jesus is the “firstborn of all creation” (Col 1:15),
it might suggest that Jesus Himself was created. However, as Thomas notes the Son’s
coming forth from the Father is described by a different expression, “born” as described
elsewhere in the Scriptures as “being begotten” (John 1:18; 3:16). While all other things
are “created,” the Son comes forth from the very being of the Father. Humans can
“create” things but the children come forth from the being of their parents. 
Colossians affirms “in Him [the Son], all things were created” (Col 1:16). Thomas
points out that God’s knowing Himself is not separate from His knowing us: “He knows
all things in His own essence, as in the first efficient cause.” In other words, in knowing
Himself, God knows that He is the cause of all things. But God knows through His
Word:
The Son, however, is the intellectual concept or representation of God insofar as
He knows Himself, and as a consequence, every creature. Therefore, inasmuch
as the Son is begotten, He is seen as a word representing every creature, and

He is the principle of every creature. For if He were not begotten in that way, the
Word of the Father would be the first-born of the Father only, and not of
creatures (The book of Sirach asserts): ‘I came forth from the mouth of the Most
High, the first-born before every creature.’ (Sir 24:3)” (Commentary on
Colossians, 35).
            “All things were created Him” (Col 1:16), because, as Thomas remarks, “The
Son is the first-born because He was generated as the principle of creatures.”
“Principle” indicates that the Son is the source of other things (Commentary on
Colossians, 37).
Thomas identifies three ways that Colossians understands Jesus to be the Son.
The Son is the principle of created things, in their creation, as well as their distinction
one from another. All things are preserved in existence in Him because “in Him all
things hold together” (Col 1:17).
            The Greek philosopher, Plato thought there were preexisting spiritual forms or
ideas, which were the different models of all things in existence. Thomas disagrees:
“Instead of all these [models] we have one, that is, the Son, the Word of God.” Thomas
comments that an artist or an architect starts with an idea within him or her according to
which he or she creates. God has an idea of us in the Son:
This is the way God is said to make all things in His wisdom, because the
wisdom of God is related to His created works just as the art of the builder is to
the house he has made. Now this form and wisdom is the Word; and thus in Him
all things were created, as in an exemplar: ‘He spoke and they were made’ (Gen
1), because He created all things to come into existence in His eternal Word
(Commentary on Colossians, 37).
 St. Thomas takes the occasion to point out the erroneous beliefs of the heretical
Manichaeans who taught that our earthly bodies were created by an evil god because
they were corruptible, unlike heavenly bodies. Thomas asserts: “This was an error,
because both types of bodies were created in the same [Word]. And so he says, ‘in
heaven and on earth. ‘… In the beginning,’ that is, in the Son, ‘God created the heavens
and the earth’ (Gen 1:1)” (Commentary on Colossians, 38).
Colossians asserts: “all things were created through Him and for Him and in Him
all things hold together” (Col 1:17).

            Thomas finds two reasons why Colossians compares the Church to a body. The
first is that “it has distinct members.” Ephesians says, “And his gifts were that some
should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers”
(Eph 4:11). However, the distinct gifts are aimed towards mutual service, as Thomas
adds, “the members of the Church serve each other in ways that are different.” The First
Letter to the Corinthians states, “The members may have the same care for one
another” (1 Cor. 12:25) and the Letter to the Galatians also affirms “Bear one another’s
burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal 6:2).
            Secondly, as a body has a soul so does the Church:
Again, just as a body is one because its soul is one, so the Church is one
because the Spirit is one: ‘There is one body and one Spirit’ (Eph 4:4); “Because
there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one
bread” (1 Cor. 10:17) (Commentary on Colossians, 46).
            How is Christ the “Head” of the Body, which is the Church? Thomas points out
that the Church exists in two states: “the state of grace in the present time, and the state
of glory in the future.” Christ is the head in both states: “He is the first in grace and the
first in glory.” “He is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, that in everything He
might be pre-eminent” (Col 1: 18)
Christ is first in grace: “He is not only first in grace insofar as He is a man, but all
men are justified by faith in Christ: ‘By one man’s obedience many will be made
righteous’ (Rom 5:19). Christ had the fullness of grace: “For some saints had particular
graces, but Christ had all graces; and so he says, that in Him all the fullness was
pleased to dwell … One can have a gift without the fullness of it or of its power … John
says that Christ was ‘full of grace and truth’ (Jn 1:14)” (Commentary on Colossians, 50).
Thomas explains: “He say, ‘to dwell,’ … it is continuously present in Christ,
because He always has control over this fullness to use it as He wishes: ‘He on whom
you see the Spirit descend and remain, that is He who baptizes with the holy Spirit’ (Jn
1:33).”
Thomas reflects that the Gospel says, ”through Him”: “He shows that Christ is the
head of the Church because of an inflow from Him” (Commentary on Colossians, 51).

            Christ is also the first in glory: “Christ is the first of all; and thus, He is the first-
born from the dead, that is, the first-born of those who are born by the resurrection”
(Commentary on Colossians, 48).
            Thomas draws out the ramifications of this passage of Colossians for us. We
come into being through the Son. Our existence is not by chance. We are created
through the Son. Our creation is “through Him and for Him.” We come into being
through Christ and we exist for Christ. In Christ is the idea of each of us by which God
brings us into existence.
            In addition to our individual existence through Christ, we are united with all
others who live in Christ, as one body, in which we serve each other. Christ is the head
of this body. From Him come all the graces that we need that come to us through the
humanity of Christ. Eventually the glory of eternal life comes to us through Him.
 Denis Vincent Wiseman, O.P.
The quotations from St. Thomas’ Commentary on the Letter of Paul to the Colossians
are taken from the translations of Fr. Fabian R. Larcher, O.P., edited by J. Mortensen
and E. Alarcón. The translation, found in Volume 40 of the Biblical Commentaries, was
published by the Aquinas Institute for the Study of Sacred Doctrine, Lander, Wyoming,
in 2012.